Excellent bunch of people to be with: Ravi Shastri lauds Indian team

After whitewashing South Africa in three-match Test series on Tuesday, Indian coach Ravi Shastri lauded the team saying the side comprises excellent cricketers.

After whitewashing South Africa in three-match Test series on Tuesday, Indian coach Ravi Shastri lauded the team saying the side comprises excellent cricketers. "Excellent bunch of people to be with. Congratulations on an outstanding series win. Enjoy the moment #TeamIndia #INDvsSA," Shastri tweeted.

After registering a comprehensive win in the final Test, Shastri was at his candid best and went on to say that the side needs to take the pitch out of the equation and look to focus on taking twenty wickets. "We have started to take pitches out of the equation. 'Bhaad me Gaya pitch' (to hell with the pitches). Whether it's Johannesburg or Melbourne or Mumbai, we want to take the pitch out of the equation," Shastri told the official broadcasters of the match.

"With the batting line-up we have, if we post big totals and then take twenty wickets, we can keep taking those world championship points we are after," added Shastri. South Africa was not able to last for long on Day Four of the third and final Test of the series.

Resuming the day at 132/8, South Africa managed to last just twelve balls as spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Shahbaz Nadeem scalped the last two wickets of Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada. With this, India came away with the first-ever series whitewash against South Africa.

Rohit Sharma was declared the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series. Sharma scored 529 runs in the three-match series and he broke several records in the entire series. He broke West Indies' cricketer Shimron Hetmyer's record of hitting the most number of sixes in a bilateral Test series.

He also became the second Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar to register three or more centuries in a three-match Test series. India is now at the top of the World Test Championship with 240 points from six matches. The rest of the eight teams have combined 232 points.

The team will next take on Bangladesh in three T20Is and two Tests. The first T20I will be played on November 3 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. (ANI)

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